Ruoming Pang: From Apple to Meta's AI unit
Ruoming Pang, who led Apple's core AI team, just left to join Meta's artificial superintelligence group.
His move comes after Apple struggled to launch new AI features and debated whether to build its own models or use outside tech.
With Meta snapping up talent from places like OpenAI and Anthropic, Pang's switch says a lot about the fierce competition in big tech right now.
Who is Ruoming Pang?
Pang managed about 100 engineers at Apple, helping create features like Genmoji and on-device text summarization.
Before Apple, he spent 15 years at Google working on speech recognition, including the Babelfish/Lingvo deep learning framework.
He holds a PhD from Princeton and master's degrees from USC and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Impact on Apple
Pang leaving could slow down Apple's progress in AI since he played a major role in shaping their strategy.
It also shows how much top researchers matter when it comes to pushing tech forward—and how companies are racing to get the best minds on their side.